Bashara sentencing delayed

The sentencing date for Robert Bashara on charges of solicitation to murder Joe Gentz has been pushed back to Dec. 10 in Wayne County Circuit Court, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office announced today.

Bashara 54, of Grosse Pointe Park, pleaded guilty in October to trying to hire a hitman to kill Gentz, the former handyman who is charged with killing Bashara’s wife, Jane.

The initial sentencing was scheduled for Tuesday. In announcing the postponement, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Maria Miller gave no explanation for the date change.

At a hearing in October, Bashara read a brief handwritten statement from a yellow legal pad admitting he paid a third party to kill Gentz.

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“In June of 2012, I foolishly and regrettably offered to pay Steve Tibaudo to find someone to kill Joseph Gentz. This took place in Wayne County,” he said in court.

Police and prosecutors say Bashara plotted with Tibaudo, a Detroit furniture store owner, to have Gentz killed in the William Dickerson Detention Facility where Gentz is being held.

According to prosecutors, Bashara grew increasingly worried about Gentz’s upcoming testimony in the Jane Bashara case and sought to have him killed while in jail to prevent him from taking the stand. Grosse Pointe Park police have labeled Bashara as a person of interest in his wife’s death.

Tibaudo has testified in previous hearings that Bashara gave him a $2,000 down payment on the $20,000 cost of the hit. After Bashara’s initial offer, Tibaudo went to police who convinced him to wear a hidden wire to secretly tape-record future conversations with Bashara. Portions of the conversations were played in court during Bashara’s preliminary examination.

Gentz, formerly of St. Clair Shores, reportedly told authorities that he killed the 56-year-old Jane Bashara, a Mount Clemens native, inside of her garage on Jan. 24 at her husband’s direction. Her body was found inside of her SUV in Detroit the following day. An autopsy determined she had been beaten and strangled.

In a court hearing in October, Gentz, 48, pleaded not guilty to one count of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the Jane Bashara murder. A Jan. 7 trial date has been scheduled.